Faith
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What is faith? It is seeing with your heart. It is stepping out on the belief. It is leaning.
All of that is true, but here’s the rub:
You can understand and/or do all three of those and still be entirely wrong
about faith. How? By misplacing your faith. I do not mean losing it. I mean
misplacing it. I mean putting it or placing it in the wrong thing. You can
ignore the logical evidence you see and instead see with your heart, and find
you should have paid attention to the logical evidence. You can ignore the
doubt and act only on the belief, and step directly onto a landmine. You can
lean in complete dependence, and collapse because you leaned on the wrong
thing. Faith itself is not enough. Faith alone is not a magical source of
blessing and goodness. No, it is not faith; it is faith in God. And Jesus
answering saith unto them, Have faith in God (Mark 11.22).
The Scripture is filled with examples
for us, both good and bad. Speaking directly to our subject, we find a
surprising number of the latter in the area of faith. People have been people
in every generation of history. They have believed – and misplaced that belief.
I do not like to just give Scripture lists when I blog but this one will be
helpful here, I think. All of these are examples of misplaced faith.
-believing in military power
Psalm
20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: But we will remember the name
of the LORD our God.
-believing in money
Psalm
49:6 They that trust in their wealth, And boast themselves in the multitude of
their riches;
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None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for
him:
-believing in crime
Psalm
62:10 Trust not in oppression, And become not vain in robbery: If riches
increase, set not your heart upon them.
-believing in humanity
Psalm
118:8 It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man.
-believing in politicians
Psalm
146:3 Put not your trust in princes, Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no
help.
-believing everything you hear
Proverbs
14:15 The simple believeth every word: But the prudent man looketh well to his
going.
-believing in idols
Isaiah
42:17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in
graven images, That say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.
-believing in the power of your own
lies
Isaiah
59:4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: They trust in
vanity, and speak lies; They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
-believing in your own beauty
Ezekiel
16:15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because
of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by;
his it was.
-believing in your own goodness
Ezekiel
33:13 When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust
to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall
not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die
for it.
-believing in your friends
Micah
7:5 Trust ye not in a friend, Put ye not confidence in a guide: Keep the doors
of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
-believing in a false Messiah
Mark
13:21 And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is
there; believe him not:
-believing in yourself
Philippians
3:4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh
that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
-believing an extra-biblical
revelation
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John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they
are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
I love the humanity of this list, the
sheer continuity of it. I have heard each of these praised at some point or
other in my own personal experience. In other words, misplaced faith is
something that every generation, indeed, every person has to deal with.
Having faith is not enough.
Understanding what that faith is and seeking to live a life of faith is not
enough. We must place that faith properly. We must have faith in God.
Amen. Thank you for the Scripture verses.
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